Posted on

NFT Prices Take A Beating After Crypto Market Chaos

Crypto has been on a downward slope the past couple of weeks – and NFT is going the same direction with the decline in dollar value.

TerraUSD and LUNA both dipped in value registering a tremendous loss of 99%. With UST (pegged with US dollar) now trading at $0.13, LUNA has managed to move to $0.0000914 on Friday afternoon, making the coin nearly worthless.

Consequently, NFTs that are tied with Terra has shown decline in trading activity.

Suggested Reading | LUNA Not Alone In Crimson: APE, AVAX, SOL, SHIB All Lose 20% In Crypto Crash

Ethereum Loses Shine

On the other hand, Ethereum (ETH) is currently trading at $2,000 which suffered a decline compared to its trading value last week at $2,800.

The lowered prices of ETH have trigged the dip on ETH NFT prices associated with a decline in gas fees that power up the Ethereum blockchain.

In the past month, the market value of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and other blue-chip enterprises has reached new lows. (eSports.net)
Blue-Chip Projects Suffer Decline

Meanwhile, CryptoPunks, Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), and other blue-chip projects have also been dragged down with their trading value faring to the lowest of low in the past month. Their prices dipped by 63% of May 12.

The daily sales or trading activity has been incredibly erratic which went with the range of eight and 67 NFTs observed since the early days of May.

Its floor price has taken the punches which caused it to drop to around 89 ETH or $169,792 on May 12 and was revived up to 99 ETH on Friday when the market experienced stabilization.

Otherdeed NFT Soaring Amid Crypto Crash

The floor price peaked at 152 Ethereum during the launch of Yuga Labs’ Otherdeed in May for the Otherside collection.

Otherdeed NFTs continue to soar as one of the top 10 collections with the most trading volume since its launch on the OpenSea NFT market. Otherdeed NFT is in the same roster as other collections by Mutuant Ape Yacht Club and BAYC.

Crypto total market cap at $1.23 trillion on the daily chart | Source: TradingView.com

The transactions of the Otherdeed collection have rolled down following its launch. The numbers cascaded down from a whopping $375 million to just $6.5 million as of this writing.

Regardless of the recent decline, the Otherdeed for Otherside collection continue to be one of the coveted NFTs in the OpeanSea market. They are also among the highest-priced NFTs for this week.

Suggested Reading | Shiba Inu Vs. Dogecoin And LUNA: Which One Will Survive The Crypto Carnage?

It’s not just Otherdeed collection that’s dominating the charts over the past week. Other NFT collections like Doodles, Azuki and Beanz, Art Blocks, and Moonbirds are also moving way up the popularity and price charts.

With the prevailing market conditions, more NFT investors are in panic mode and are trying to liquidate assets.

Meanwhile, Meta is currently testing an NFT display function geared towards a special group of IG collectors and creators. It’s expected that once this new feature becomes available, it can greatly impact the NFT space.

Featured image from CryptoHubk, chart from TradingView.com

Posted on

The Wall Street Journal Is Dead Wrong About The NFT Market’s Supposed Collapse

The NFT market is thriving, actually. Once again, the Wall Street Journal makes a fool of itself by tackling subjects beyond the publication’s comprehension. The author declares “the NFT market is collapsing,” citing suspicious numbers and two cases of bad trades as proof. And then, to top it all off poses a terrible theory. The “NFT Sales Are Flatlining” article is embarrassing beyond belief.

Disclaimer: The following op-ed represents the views of the author, and may not necessarily reflect the views of Bitcoinist. Bitcoinist is an advocate of creative and financial freedom alike.

Among other things, it proposes the worst definition of NFTs ever written: 

“NFTs are bitcoin-like digital tokens that act like a certificate of ownership that live on a blockchain.”

No, NFTs are not “bitcoin-like” at all. And the WSJ just forgot about the “non-fungible” aspect of these unique digital assets. And yes, someone bought an NFT of Jack Dorsey’s first tweet for $2.9M, another person bought a Snoop Dogg endorsed one for $32K. Both tried to auction the digital assets and only got embarrassingly low offers. Based on those two cases, the WSJ implies that the whole NFT market is dead on the water.

THE DEATH OF NFTs…

One buyer purchased a Snoop Dog curated NFT in early April for about $32,000 worth of the cryptocurrency ether. It's now up for auction, with an asking price of $25.5 million.

The highest current bid is for 0.0743 ether—about $210.https://t.co/dg54XYijxh

— Steven Russolillo (@srussolillo) May 3, 2022

The WSJ bogus numbers about the NFT Market

Admittedly, the Wall Street Journal probably has access to a wider array of data than NewsBTC. However, the numbers they use to prove the NFT market is dead are suspicious as hell. 

“The sale of nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, fell to a daily average of about 19,000 this week, a 92% decline from a peak of about 225,000 in September, according to the data website NonFungible.  

The number of active wallets in the NFT market fell 88% to about 14,000 last week from a high of 119,000 in November.”

Notice that they don’t link to NonFungible and provide a few low-resolution graphs that the normal eye can’t audit. However, everyone can go to NonFungible. The number of sales for May 3rd is 104.465 and that represents $206B. Hardly the signs of a dead NFT market. Granted, the number of sales for April 3rd is approximately 14K, but on May 1st the NFT market moved a whooping $778B in 117K sales.

That’s not it. The WSJ also presents these stats as if they prove its case:

“The imbalance between supply and demand is also hurting the NFT market. There are about five NFTs for every buyer, according to data from analytics firm Chainalysis. As of the end of April, there have been 9.2 million NFTs sold, which were bought by 1.8 million people.”

Have they even been to OpenSea? There are hundreds of collections. And NFT aficionados own dozens of pieces. Sometimes, hundreds. Sometimes, thousands. And that’s just one platform that serves one blockchain. Five NFTs for every buyer is nothing.

ETH price chart for 05/04/2022 on Coinbase | Source: ETH/USD on TradingView.com
The Wall Street Journal’s Off The Mark Theory

This might be the most ridiculous part of the article. Let’s let the author bury himself:

“There are signs that collectors may also differentiate between NFTs that catalog a vast set of cartoonlike characters—like the CryptoPunks—and tailored, NFT art projects spurred by major artists who already enjoy museum followings.”

 And then he talks about Jeff Koons and Chinese artist Cai Guo Qiang, who sold out NFT collections, and director Kevin Smith, who’s planning to. Meanwhile, Moonbirds set the NFT market on fire and the Bored Ape’s Otherside literally broke Ethereum. We’re talking billions of dollars for the “cartoonlike characters” team. Not only that, The Nightly Mint points us towards Nansen’s numbers. 

6/ Taking a look at NFT Paradise, volume is robust – the last two weeks are both set to be among the top-10 in history (measured in ETH).

Users per Week and Transactions per Week are likewise looking to reverse downtrends that began at the start of the year. pic.twitter.com/edNKzddMQW

— Nansen🧭 (@nansen_ai) May 3, 2022

They clearly show that “the last two weeks are both set to be among the top-10 in history (measured in ETH).” And that “the Blue Chips and Social sectors are on a tear, up 81% and 83% YTD.”

So, what game is the Wall Street Journal playing? Is this a case of poor research or evidence of malicious intent? That’s for you to decide, dear reader.

Featured Image by Philip Strong on Unsplash | Charts by TradingView

Posted on

Bored Ape’s Land Sale Broke Ethereum. Extreme Success Or Roaring Failure?

On Saturday, April 30th, Bored Ape’s creators Yuga Labs broke Ethereum. Their new metaverse-inspired project, Otherside sold plots of virtual land to a roaring crowd of people yelling “Shut up and take my money!” In this case, the currency in question was the recently created ApeCoin. However, since Ethereum hosts ApeCoin and the land NFTs, the roaring crowd needed ETH to pay for the operations’ gas fees. 

If you’re familiar with Ethereum, you already know what happened. According to IntoTheBlock’s Lucas Outumuro, “The Bored Ape’s Otherside land sale led to more fees being processed by Ethereum in three hours than in the previous two weeks.” Of course, all hell broke loose. The gas prices across the network went through the roof, many transactions failed causing people to lose their gas fees, and others just couldn’t afford to mint the NFT lands they were entitled to.

At the end of the day, the Otherside virtual plots NFTs, known as Otherdeeds, sold out. The Ethereum network pocketed around $125M just in gas fees. It didn’t survive the madness unscathed, though. Several Ethereum-based projects reported failed and/or slowed down operations and Etherscan, Ethereum’s block explorer, completely crashed. “We’re sorry for turning off the lights on Ethereum for a while,” Bored Ape’s creators Yuga Labs stated.

The Origins Of Otherside

Back in March, Yuga Labs raised an Andreessen Horowitz-led funding round of $450M to build Otherside. Apparently, it’s a Metaverse project in the vein of Decentraland and The Sandbox, but with a Play-To-Earn element built into it from the beginning. That same month, they created the now-defunct http://somethingisbrewing.xyz/ to ask people to KYC themselves and link their personal info to their Ethereum addresses.

Those registered addresses had the right to mint two plots of land in the Otherside playground. Bored Ape’s holders received two free plots each. There are a total of 55K Otherdeeds. To mint each one cost 305 ApeCoin, plus the Ethereum network’s gas fees. Even though it was expensive, considering Yuga Lab’s successful track record, it seemed like a steal.

Until the gas prices rose to unpayable levels, that is.

ETH price chart on FTX | Source: ETH/USD on TradingView.com
Bored Ape’s Creators Yuga Labs Speak

After selling everything, breaking everything, and leaving humble collectors land-less, the Bored Ape’s creators responded to the controversy with this brief Twitter thread.

We know that the Otherdeed mint was unprecedented in its size as a high-demand NFT collection, and that would bring with it unique challenges.

— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) May 1, 2022

Among other things, Yuga Labs stated:

  • Even though they took the mentioned KYC measures, too many people wanted in. “This has been the largest NFT mint in history by several multiples, and yet the gas used during the mint shows that demand far exceeded anyone’s wildest expectations.”
  • Soon, ApeCoin will cease to be an Ethereum token and will become a full-fledged cryptocurrency. “It seems abundantly clear that ApeCoin will need to migrate to its own chain in order to properly scale. ”

We're sorry for turning off the lights on Ethereum for a while. It seems abundantly clear that ApeCoin will need to migrate to its own chain in order to properly scale. We'd like to encourage the DAO to start thinking in this direction.

— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) May 1, 2022

  • They will refund the gas fees of the operations that didn’t go through. “For those of you affected, we appreciate your willingness to build alongside us – know that we’ve got your back and will be refunding your gas.”
  • In a posterior tweet, Yuga Labs announced that the gas-refunding process has already started. “Note that you do not need to do anything – we will transfer it all back to your wallet and announce when it is completed. Don’t click any links.”

We are still working on refunding all Otherdeed minters with failed transactions their gas. Note that you do not need to do anything – we will transfer it all back to your wallet and announce when it is completed. Don't click any links.

— Yuga Labs (@yugalabs) May 2, 2022

Even though it sounds like the Bored Ape’s creators are doing the right thing, its worth noting that the people receiving said refunds didn’t get to buy an Otherdeed NFT and the collection sold out. They can still get them in the secondary market at a premium, but the community is not pleased.

Bored Ape’s Users Speak

What follows is a narrow selection of opinions about the launch. Most of these people are Bored Ape’s rich and are heavily invested in the Yuga Labs ecosystem, but they’re worried. Let’s summarize what they said.

  • According to Ap3father, “The drop went unbelievably poorly. That’s the truth of it all.” Plus, “this drop did nothing to help further the distribution of the already popular Yuga community … the same 27.5k people bought ..” However, he reflects, “Yuga Labs made me a millionaire. I am beyond spoiled, humbled, and blessed to be in this situation because of them.”

The drop went unbelievably poorly. That's the truth of it all. The initial thesis was that not enough KYC wallets exist for it to sell out in wave-1 .. not only was that incorrect … It sold out with 2+E in gas the entire way … a nightmare scenario …

— ap3father.eth (@ap3father) May 1, 2022

His conclusion is that “The community responded atrociously to this mint.” And his advice is to sell, “You may have millions in NFTs and that’s outstanding, but grab onto reality. When you die one day … they don’t bury you in the metaverse my friend. ” He has extra Bored Apes, though, so he’s not going anywhere. “I am excited to both sell some apes & continue my journey into the otherside.”

  • For his part, Irish expressed suspicion. “How does the biggest innovators in the space not forsee a gas war? You literally have every address, identification of every KYC’d.  Offer each KYCd 2 lands?” And tried to get Yuga Labs to honor their promise to sell him an Otherdeed, “We hear how you “make good” I’m thrilled you are paying failed transactions! Acknowledge your mint mistake.”

I spent 3 hours constantly refreshing and trying like many here. If you really want to spread to wallets let those KYC'd mint. We should've been given 2 weeks. And put on allowed mint list on contract. Similarly like Gary Vee did, Instead you chose PR nightmare.

— Irish (@Irishmikeys) May 2, 2022

  • On the other hand, 3433 defended Yuga Labs. “Yuga let us mint BAYC for 0.08, they gave us Dogs to claim currently worth 9 ETH, they gave us free serums worth 57 ETH to drink or hold/sell which made Mutants, worth 30 ETH, they gave us 100-200k USD worth of $APE coin.”

Sure, maybe the mint could of gone better, we could of had a Cue/Raffle system, but at the end of the day every successful mint on ETH is a fucking shitshow, we all know this.

— 3433.eth 🍌 ☕ (@boredape3433) May 1, 2022

Vitalik Buterin Speaks

  • Last but not least, Ethereum’s creator Vitalik Buterin defended the Yuga Labs smart contract that governed the whole operation. “Regardless of contract details, tx fee goes up until list price + tx fee = market price. If gas usage per purchase decreased 2x, the equilibrium gas price would have just been >12000 gwei instead of 6000.”

Don't think optimizing the contract would help. Regardless of contract details, tx fee goes up until list price + tx fee = market price. If gas usage per purchase decreased 2x, the equilibrium gas price would have just been >12000 gwei instead of 6000.

— vitalik.eth (@VitalikButerin) May 1, 2022

Nevertheless, the Bored Ape’s creators seem pretty determined to create their own blockchain. Some people even suggest that they orchestrated this whole situation to justify and market it. 

Featured Image: Bored Ape’s metaverse Otherside logo from the site | Charts by TradingView